Snow

Tuesday morning Mathews County awoke to gray skies, a layer of snow on the ground, lingering snow flurries, no school for Daughter and no work for me.  (This was one of the rarest of rare occasions my place of employment shut down for the day.  I think they need to try it more often, they might like it. I know I would.)

By the afternoon, clouds gave way to sunshine, but the temperatures were still brutally cold.

So much has happened since I last posted I hardly know where to start.

Saturday morning, Baby Sis and I traveled to New Kent Winery and stood in the freezing cold along with about 1,600 others for what felt like hours waiting on the start of a race. If that wasn't a test of endurance I don't know what is.  Naturally neither of us had trained for it, but even so we placed in the middle of the pack for the 10K.  (There was also a 5K.)  Afterwards we sampled some of the wine, which helped make the pain and agony of gasping for breath in frigid weather somewhat worthwhile.

Later she talked me into going back with her to Richmond. Her friend Dino made us a delicious Valentines supper of perfectly cooked baked salmon, and the three of us headed out to see a band at the Broadberry Theater.  I confess that the very last thing I wanted to do after running a 10K early on a Saturday morning an hour from home in brutal temperatures was stay up late and see a band, but in hindsight I'm glad I did.  We had a really good time.

Sunday night I joined my friend Alda, her husband, and a new friend with one of the most unusual names I've ever heard--Myrtchas--for dinner in Deltaville, also a good time and not something I'd ordinarily do on a Sunday night.

Monday Daughter and I waited eagerly for details about the impending snow storm. I started cooking, because that's what I tend to do when it snows.  Vegetarian chili, lasagna and cornbread for starters.  An odd combination but somehow it worked.

Tuesday morning we awoke to the winter wonderland above. Later in the day I started sweating--very unusual in a house I keep at a steady 67 degrees even in this frigid weather--and realized I'm getting sick.  Thankfully, because work was cancelled, I could spend the day in bed without feeling guilty. I still found time to make more food, including a chocolate peanut butter pudding cake in the crock pot.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Not sure where the punctuation goes, but all of those words belong.

That same day, in between bouts of sweating, I still had to walk the dog six times in the snow.  Six times.  Six. In calf-deep snow. My aging dog has kidney disease and when he's not drinking water he's expelling it.  It's great fun in 20-degree weather when you're simultaneously sweating and coughing.  Good times.

That's OK.  Except for the dog and running 6.2 miles on a hilly course in New Kent County in frigid temperatures my minor aches and pains, the past several days have been wonderful.

Practically perfect.

Hope all is well where you are.

-CBW